When the TARDIS jumps a time track while landing on Xeros, the Doctor,
Ian, Barbara and Vicki are thrust, phantomlike, into their own near
future. They discover that they are destined to become exhibits in an
unscrupulous museum run by the warlike Moroks who rule the planet. Teaming
with the native Xerons, the companions try to overthrow the dictators and
avert their horrible destiny.

Production

During October 1964, while he was preparing to leave Doctor Who,
story editor David Whitaker contacted South African writer/actor Glyn
Jones, whom he had met at a dinner party, with a view to Jones penning an
adventure for the programme. By the time Whitaker was replaced by Dennis
Spooner, Jones had been commissioned to write The Space Museum.

One of the requirements of the adventure (designated Serial Q) was that
the Doctor should be absent from the third episode; this would enable
William Hartnell to take a week off. Jones was later dismayed by Spooner's
editing of his scripts, which excised much of the humorous content.
Spooner felt that such material was inappropriate in what he envisioned as
a high-concept science-fiction story. This would be Jones' only
contribution to Doctor Who as a writer, a second submission in 1970
being rejected by then-script editor Terrance Dicks. However, Jones would
go on to play Krans in 1975's The Sontaran
Experiment. He died on April 2nd, 2014.

Around the start of April, John Wiles was appointed as
Verity Lambert's successor

The director assigned to The Space Museum was Mervyn Pinfield, who
a few months earlier had concluded his appointment as Doctor Who's
associate producer, helping rookie producer Verity Lambert to learn the
ropes of the job. As a director for the series, Pinfield had most recently
helmed the majority of Planet Of Giants.
Pinfield was aware that Lambert and Spooner hoped to save money on The
Space Museum to compensate for the strain on the programme's resources
caused by The Web Planet, two serials
earlier, and The Chase, which would be the
next story in production; both of these were very expensive serials. Part
of Pinfield's cost-saving efforts was a minimal filming schedule at the
Ealing Television Film Studios. This encompassed just a single day, on
March 11th, 1965 and chiefly dealt with model shots.

As The Space Museum was being prepared for recording in April, a
sea change was taking place in the Doctor Who production office.
Lambert had already declared her intent to leave the show at the
conclusion of the second recording block. Around the start of April, John
Wiles was appointed as her successor. Wiles had made a name for himself
both in the theatre -- as a director -- and in television, where he had
worked as a writer and a story editor, on programmes such as
Compact as well as a variety of thriller serials for the fledgling
BBC2. Wiles' promotion to producer had come in place of his original
request to take the BBC's internal directors' course.

At around the same time, Spooner determined that he would not return to
Doctor Who following the expiry of his six-month contract. Dalek
creator Terry Nation had recently taken over as script supervisor on the
high-profile new series The Baron, and requested Spooner's help on
the show. Spooner, enticed by the prospect of working on a programme which
would receive attention in the lucrative American market, readily
agreed.

With the changeover in the production team, Jacqueline
Hill decided to leave Doctor Who

Doctor Who's third story editor would therefore be Donald Tosh.
Ironically, Tosh had also recently concluded a stint as story editor on
Compact. With the changeover in production team, Jacqueline Hill
decided that she would depart Doctor Who in The
Chase along with William Russell, who had voiced the same intent
some weeks earlier.

Production on The Space Museum was originally planned to begin on
April 9th, skipping April 2nd, which was Good Friday. In the event,
however, part one did in fact go before the cameras on the 2nd; the
subsequent installments would follow on consecutive Fridays. Unusually,
The Space Museum was recorded in Television Centre 4 rather than
Doctor Who's usual studio home of Riverside 1. On April 16th,
Hartnell was absent from the recording of The Search. Amongst the
limited guest cast for The Space Museum was Peter Craze, playing
Dako; Craze's brother, Michael, would later be cast as companion Ben
Jackson.